Hockey Technique Tip #1

Hockey Technique Tip #1

Hold your stick in a pancake grip with your right hand only as an opposing attacker approaches with the ball, and stab your stick at the ball and immediately retract it (Known as a jab). If you get a touch on the ball then it usually disrupts the attackers run and the ball can jumps into open play. If you do not get a touch on the ball, it still forces the attackers head to go down and be unable to find a good passing option. When the ball carrier’s head is down, this is the best time to come in for a tackle

Learn to use your body to fake a direction you are going in and as you take a step in that direction, push off your outside foot in the opposite direction with the ball.

Adding ‘fakes and dummies’ to your skill set is a very effective way to ‘wrong-foot’ the opposite defender

Work on being unpredictable and vary your attack. For example, break inside the field on the first and second receive and suddenly on the 3rd one, break outside, down the line.

The position you carry the ball in, is important. Use your body as a wall between the ball and a defender while running with it. It is a very effective way to prevent a defenders stick from interfering with the path of the ball.